poetic; and yet he will repay your study; his fortune is vast, and is
entirely due to his own exertions. He is the very fellow to help us to
dispose of our trinkets, find us a suitable house in Paris, and manage
the details of our installation. Admirable Casimir, one of my oldest
comrades! It was on his advice, I may add, that I invested my little
fortune in Turkish bonds; when we have added these spoils of the mediaeval
Church to our stake in the Mahometan empire, little boy, we shall
positively roll among doubloons, positively roll!--Beautiful forest," he
cried, "farewell! Though called to other scenes, I will not forget thee.
Thy name is graven in my heart. Under the influence of prosperity I
become dithyrambic, Jean-Marie. Such is the impulse of the natural soul;
such was the constitution of primaeval man. And I--well, I will not refuse
the credit--I have preserved my youth like a virginity; another, who
should have led the same snoozing, countrified existence for these years,
another had become rusty, become stereotype; but I, I praise my happy
constitution, retain the spring unbroken. Fresh opulence and a new sphere
of duties find me unabated in ardour and only more mature by knowledge.
For this prospective change, Jean-Marie--it may probably have shocked
you. Tell me now, did it not strike you as an inconsistency? Confess--it
is useless to dissemble--it pained you?"

"Yes," said the boy.

"You see," returned the Doctor, with sublime fatuity, "I read your
thoughts! Nor am I surprised--your education is not yet complete; the
higher duties of men have not been yet presented to you fully. A
hint--till we have leisure--must suffice. Now that I am once more in
possession of a modest competence; now that I have so long prepared
myself in silent meditation, it becomes my superior duty to proceed to
Paris. My scientific training, my undoubted command of language, mark me
out for the service of my country. Modesty in such a case would be a
snare. If sin were a philosophical expression, I should call it sinful. A
man must not deny his manifest abilities, for that is to evade his
obligations. I must be up and doing; I must be no skulker in life's
battle."

So he rattled on, copiously greasing the joint of his inconsistency with
words; while the boy listened silently, his eyes fixed on the horse, his
mind seething. It was all lost eloquence; no array of words could
unsettle a belief of Jean-Marie's; and he drove into Fonta